Farewell to a Great Person

(Out of respect for the family and some privacy for myself I’m only using his last initial in this post.)

Yesterday at 2:30am my boss, Mr. W, passed away peacefully in his sleep after a months-long battle with leukemia. He had previously survived cancer both at the tender age of 13 and again in his 30s so this time around when he was told there was no cure he felt only gratitude for the time he had been granted.

Mr. W was the best kind of boss you could ever even hope for. He’s the kind of boss that had a secret candy stash and would always give you treats for no reason. Some days he’d rush uptown and order pizza for the entire staff for no particular reason. Or, some days when he and I were alone at the shop he’d sneak uptown and buy Coca-Cola for both of us, even though he wasn’t really supposed to have much sugar. In my four years at the lumberyard/hardware store/building company he owned I’ve only ever heard him get mad once and it was never toward an employee.

But he wasn’t only a good boss of course. He was a wonderful person. Mr. W was always there to listen to you if you had a problem and he’d be the first one to help if he heard you were having trouble. He donated so much to charity and was active in the community right up until the end. And he was one of the very few people I know that actually practiced the Golden Rule throughout his whole life.

I knew the end was coming soon and Mr. W had been suffering for quite a while. I’m glad that the doctors were able to keep his pain under control and that he passed away peacefully in his sleep. Still, when you have to say goodbye to such a great person you can’t help but feel sad.

It’s so hard to lose a friend, especially one that you look up to and admire. My heart goes out to you, his family and all those lives touched by Mr. W. May you all find peace, love, and hope for a better tomorrow, then his memory will always live on in your hearts.